About Us

Sustainability, History and Social Mission

Our Sustainability Statement

At The Experience, we strive to be sustainable and eco-friendly. We chose electric karts because they don’t produce any harmful fumes meaning they’re far better for the environment than petrol karts, without compromising on speed and torque.

The Experience is also committed to supporting local suppliers and reducing food waste and our café uses sustainable and local ingredients. Our meat comes from Paisley, you’ll find local beers and soft drinks on offer in the café, and a substantial portion of our fruit, vegetables, and herbs are grown and cultivated by young people at Kibble’s community garden. Customers can take their leftover food away with them to reduce food waste, and any kitchen waste is turned into compost to be used to grow more produce at the community garden which is then sent back to our kitchen for use in various dishes. This closed loop process helps to keep food waste to a minimum.

We want to send as little to landfill as possible, which is why when our kart tyres are no longer fit for use, we add them to our track barrier. We even saved the fuselage of a Boeing 747 from being scrapped, and this is now part of our conference and events facilities. We encourage our customers to recycle and you’ll find recycling bins (made from old kart tyres) around the building.

We’re proud of the history of our Hillington site, which used to be a Rolls Royce factory producing Spitfire engines during WWII. We’ve kept the original lamp fittings from the factory, which you can see in the Refuel Café, and our plane is another way to pay homage to the site’s previous purpose.

We’re working with Green Tourism to become even more environmentally friendly. You can find out about Green Tourism by visiting www.green-tourism.com

Our Proud History

The story of The Experience begins just before the outbreak of World War II in 1935 with the Shadow Scheme—a plan to accelerate the production of military aircraft by building new factories across Britain.

Hillington Park, just outside Glasgow, was picked as a site for a Shadow Factory site because of the many skilled workers who lived locally. In just a few years, it was producing hundreds of Spitfire and Merlin engines every day.

After the war, the building was turned over to Rolls Royce, who manufactured engines and parts here until 2005. Fast forward 9 years to 2014, when we opened our doors as Scotland’s first electric karting arena: The Experience!

In 2016 we added our famous airplane to the front of the building, creating Glasgow’s most unique events space. Generously supported by The Moffat Charitable Trust, it’s incredibly popular for children’s parties and corporate team building days.

On your next visit to The Experience, why not take a trip to The Timeline Tunnel? There, you can learn about the history of Kibble, Rolls Royce and how they all link together in The Experience.

Our Social Mission

The Experience is not only a 5* star visitor attraction; it’s a social enterprise operated by Kibble Education and Care, one of Scotland’s oldest charities. All of our profits are reinvested in ways that create positive social change.

For over 150 years, Kibble has been helping young people to build a better and brighter future for themselves. In the present day, Kibble is Scotland’s specialist provider of services for at risk children and young people. We help build positive futures for young people with complex social, emotional and educational needs.

Our urban garden is situated a few hundred yards from the kitchen and provides fresh vegetables, herbs and salads. We also plan to develop a range of branded packaged goods including jams, chutneys, breads, etc.

The Experience is a place for everyone, and our Access for All programme ensures that the whole family can enjoy a fun-filled day. Our Accessible Karting programme allows those with additional support needs to experience the excitement of go-karting, and the laser tag arena, conference facilities, and café are fully accessible.